It Has Always Been You
by daughterofathena2
Summary: A story based off that tiny five second clip in the promo for the next episode of Manifest. Jared and Michaela centric. Rated T for now but has the possibility to go up should anyone want that :).


"Michaela, wait! Just talk to me, please," said Jared, chasing Michaela outside the police department.

"No, no I can't do this anymore," said Michaela, finally turning to face him.

"Can't do what? Talk to me?"

"I need space Jared, it's just…it's too hard,"

"Please, no, just talk to me Mic. Come on, what's on your mind?" pleaded Jared.

"I'm confused, ok? One day, Grace is telling me how she saw Lourdes buying a fertility kit at the drugstore. Next thing I know, we're in the hospital, and when you finally wake up instead of letting me go and get your wife, you ask me to stay with you," Michaela had begun to cry, Jared staring at her with a desperate look in his eyes. He's desperate to hold her, desperate to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"I still love you Jared, how could I not? But you married my best friend. I just, I need time to get over you," said Michaela. Michaela began to turn away from him, tears streaming down her cheeks when Jared took three quick steps towards her and turned around. Taking her in his arms, he looked into her eyes.

"I love you, Michaela. It's always been you," Jared leaned in and kissed her, hand cupping her cheek.

They broke apart after a minute. Jared hugged her close.

"What about Lourdes?" asked Michaela, Jared sighed and pulled away a little bit, keeping his arms around her waist.

"It's true we used to talk about having kids, but the subject hasn't been brought up since you came back. Things with her haven't really felt right since you came back. But this, right here, right now, feels right," said Jared.

He leaned in to kiss her again.

"We have to tell her, now, it's not fair to her," said Michaela, Jared nodded.

"You're right, let's go," he said, taking her hand in his.

The drive to Jared's house was tense, to say the least. He drove with one hand, refusing to let go of Michaela's, but neither said a word until he put the car in park in the driveway.

"Are you sure?" asked Michaela.

"I've never been surer of anything, except when I asked you to marry me," quipped Jared.

Michaela smiled for a second

"We should go in, she probably heard the car," she said, avoiding the mention of marriage.

"Yeah, we should," said Jared.

Together they exited the car, he didn't reach for her hand again as they climbed the porch steps and walked inside.

"Jared, is that you?" called Lourdes from upstairs.

"Yeah, and Michaela's here! Could you come down?"

"Hey Mic! I didn't know you were coming by," said Lourdes, smiling as she walked downstairs.

"Hey, yeah sorry to just barge in," said Michaela, rubbing her hands together nervously.

"It's no problem, really, want some dinner?" asked Lourdes, kissing Jared on the cheek.

"We actually need to talk to you," said Jared, motioning for her to sit down as he and Michaela sat down on the couch. Lourdes immediately became suspicious.

"What's going on?" asked Lourdes.

"I'm so sorry, this isn't fair to you at all. I love you, but I'm still in love with Michaela. I don't think I ever stopped loving her," said Jared.

"What?" asked Lourdes, beginning to cry.

"I'm so sorry, I don't want to hurt you, but I know it wouldn't be fair to any of us if we weren't honest with you. I still love Michaela, she loves me, and we kissed," said Jared, he reached over and took one of Michaela's hands in his, Lourdes turned towards Michaela.

"You told me…you told me you were fine with this, that you were over him," said Lourdes.

"How could I be? I know it was over five years for you but for me it was about five minutes," said Michaela.

"You told me you were going to say no, that you wouldn't have married him," said Lourdes. Jared looked at Michaela in surprise.

"What?" asked Jared.

"I'm so sorry Lourdes. I lied to you," said Michaela looking at Lourdes before turning to face Jared and looking into his eyes.

"When the plane landed, before we knew anything was wrong, I turned on my phone and typed out a text. I said yes, Jared. I hit send but you never got it because all of our phones were out of service. Then I got off the plane, learned about what happened and that you two were married. I didn't want to screw up the lives you had built for yourselves so I lied to you Lourdes. But I was coming back to say yes," said Michaela.

"If you were going to say yes, why didn't you tell him when he asked you?" asked Lourdes.

"I thought you had chosen to take a later flight to avoid coming back to me," said Jared quietly.

"I was punishing myself for Evie, I thought I didn't deserve to be happy. I just needed time," said Michaela.

Lourdes sighed.

"I love you, Jared. But I'm not surprised, I knew this was coming from the moment you heard she was alive. The way you reacted, the way you've been acting since. I knew it was coming I was just in denial, just like you. That's why I bought the fertility kit I just wanted to pretend like everything was normal," said Lourdes.

"I'm sorry for hurting you, you deserve so much better," said Jared.

"Thank you both for telling me. I hope you're happy together," said Lourdes.

"I'll just go and pack a bag," said Jared, he let go of Michaela's hand and got up from the couch.

"I hope we can still be friends," said Michaela.

"Of course we can, Mic, I just need a little time though," said Lourdes.

"Fair enough, do you want me to leave? Go outside?" asked Michaela.

"No, of course not! But if you will excuse me I'm going to start making dinner for myself," said Lourdes.

"Of course," said Michaela, Lourdes left the room without another word. A few minutes later Jared came back down, bag in hand.

"Where'd she go?" he asked,

"She's in the kitchen, said she needed time and space,"

Jared nodded and stared in the direction of the kitchen for a moment. He turned back to Michaela and reached out his hand to her.

"Ready, Mic?" he asked. She smiled and took his hand.

"Yeah,"

When they got into the car Jared turned the ignition,

"So, where to?" asked Michaela.

"You tell me,"

"You hungry?" asked Michaela

"Not really, you?"

Michaela shook her head

"Me neither," she said.

"I don't want to be away from you tonight, can I come with you to Ben's?" asked Jared.

"Grace kicked Ben out, I would feel kind of awkward going back," said Michaela.

"Shit, is he ok?" asked Jared.

"No, he's been doing everything trying to protect Cal and himself, Grace doesn't understand what's going on even though he told her about the callings and she kicked him out," said Michaela.

"So where is he?" asked Jared.

"This boiler room place we found that's kind of been acting as our headquarters for all the weird shit that's been going on. Not the most comfortable place," said Michaela.

"So where does that leave you and me?" asked Jared.

"Hotel tonight, figure it out tomorrow?" asked Michaela.

"Sounds good, do you need to grab stuff from Grace's?" asked Jared,

"Yeah, so I guess we are going to Grace's now," said Michaela.

Jared parked on the street.

"Want me to come in with you?" he asked

"No, I'll just be a few minutes, Babe," said Michaela, leaning over the dash to kiss him on the cheek,

"I missed that," said Jared, smiling.

"Me too," said Michaela before jogging into the house.

Michaela was tossing clothes into a duffel bag when Grace knocked on her open door.

"I kicked out Ben, not you Michaela," said Grace.

"I know but Ben's hurt, and I would feel awkward staying here," said Michaela.

"Do you think I was wrong? To kick him out?" she asked. Michaela sighed and stopped packing.

"You're frustrated with him, I get that, and so does he. He understands why you kicked him out. I just hope that you give him a chance to explain everything the best he can. Just know that he doesn't have all the answers, no one does. No one knows what is happening to us," said Michaela.

"Us? Happening to _us_ , does that mean you're hearing the voices too? And seeing things?" asked Grace.

"Yeah, I am, and so are the other people from the plane. So is Cal. Ben didn't take him home immediately because Cal insisted that Ben had to go into the building and lead people out, that only Ben could do it. He wouldn't leave Ben either. Ben tried to take him home, I tried to take him home but he wouldn't go. If you won't talk to Ben, talk to Cal, I find sometimes kids have the best way of explaining things," said Michaela.

"Is that Jared's car outside?" she asked after a minute, changing the subject.

"Yeah, he's left Lourdes. We're back together," said Michaela.

"I'm happy for you," said Grace.

"Thanks," said Michaela, and with that she zipped up her bag and walked out the front door.

"Got everything?" asked Jared when Michaela climbed back into the car.

"Yeah, let's go!" she said.

"I called and made a reservation at a hotel not far from here, wanted to make sure there were rooms and that we weren't searching all night," said Jared.

"Good,"

Jared drove quickly, pushing the speed limit, Michaela laughed,

"Shouldn't we, as detectives, be a good example and not speed?" asked Michaela.

"Can't help being eager, Babe," said Jared, flashing a smile.


End file.
